Mountain-biking Skyline Trail, Big Bear, CA

During my week of camping at Big Bear, I was able to take advantage of the new Skyline Trail. This trail is amazing. The trail crew did a great job, the whole trail has great flow. Most of the trail is along the ridge with great views of the Santa Anna River Valley.
One of the best parts the trail is the variety of terrain. On one end you are climbing through pine forest, then riding the ridge, before dipping into a bowl of berms, and where I turned around the trail was high desert scrub and weaved through large boulders.

I encountered as many animals as people. At one part I was chasing a group of deer down the trail. The few people I did see, mostly hikers, near the view points were all very friendly.


-James

Lele Kawa

Mountain-bike Fern Trail, Big Bear, CA

My first downhill ride in Big Bear was a little loop near my camp site. I followed somebody's Strava Segment that lead across Bristlecone and down Fern trail.

My legs were still sore from the race, so my up hill was slow and painful. The little downhill down Fern trail was enough of an award for pushing myself up the hill.



-James

Lele Kawa

Camp Tahquitz 6 hour Challenge 2014

Having been a recreational Mountain Biker for a few year, I decided to go all out for my first Mountain Bike race. I signed up for a solo 6 hour endurance race with hopes I could find some friends to join me. Because I had spent most of the year leading up to the race traveling over seas, I was a little under prepared for the race. In all I had about a month of riding in the summer heat of Arizona, and for about half of this time my bike was in the shop for various repairs. To include a last minute replacing of the crank, two days before I departed for the race, because I stripped out a pedal because I didn't realize it was coming loose on a trail ride.

I arrived at BSA Camp Tahquitz early Friday evening, shortly after registration opened. I quickly set up my camp and then took off for a pre ride of the course. Upon hearing that this would be my first race, one of the event organizers offered this advice. "Start slow, and then slow down." On the pre ride, I started to understand how unprepared I was. The course was a loop of around 6 miles, that included a 1,200 foot climb and a loose and dusty down hill of switch backs through the pines. Also the camp lay at around 7,000 feet ASL, much higher elevation than my flat training grounds in Yuma (200 feet ASL). Despite its difficulty the ride was undoubtably beautiful. Riding through pine and sunny meadows in near perfect weather.

When I returned to camp, the rest of the campers had arrived. Most of them from Jenson USA, a title sponsor of the event, riding in the team event and running a maintenance tent for the race. The combination of a ban on alcohol from being on a BSA camp and the early race start in the morning made it an early night in camp.

With my registration done and my bike already set up, I was able to stay in my tent until the race was about to start. When I pulled back my tent flap, I was surprised by all the activity. A few hundred people were now buzzing around ready to race. I grabbed a light breakfast and prepared my aid station.

I took my place at the back of the pack for the mass start. I held no illusions of competing against any of the riders beside myself. The first lap felt pretty good. I kept up with the pack on the flats and even passed a few people on the down hill. At the bottom of the hill I dropped back to the rear of the pack. The second lap went a lot like the first. By the climb of my second lap, many of the leaders were working on their third, I gave way to the leaders as they easily passed me. I made a stop at my aid station to grab some food and top up on water. Once I got started on the third lap exhaustion was already setting in. I took advantage of the Aid station at the base of the climb drinking a few cups of HEED electrolyte and cookies. Once I started the climb my legs were spent and I found myself having to dismount to allow people to pass, especially in the technical sections. The fourth lap even the down hills were a struggle when my legs began to cramp. I made an even longer stop at the Aid Station at the bottom of the hill. Laying down while eating cookies and drinking more HEED, in hopes of curing the cramps before the climb. I crawled up the climb and made it back to the start, suffering the worst of the leg cramps within site of the finish line. I crossed the line at 5:33, relieved that I could stop without worrying that I could still finish one more lap. This race had a hard finish at 6 hours, so any lap that doesn't cross the finish before that time doesn't count, as opposed to races where any lap started before that time will count. I finished 6th of 7 in my age group.

Obstacle at the bottom of the Ravine

Lower Meadow

After grabbing a snack I crashed in my hammock to recover while waiting for the award ceremony. Laying around was exactly what I needed right then. I spent the rest of the day lounging around camp with the Jenson USA guys. Many of them were competing in day two of racing, the inaugural Endure race. In retrospect this is the race I should have done, and if I had anything left in my legs I would have signed up.

-James

Lele Kawa

Mountain Bike Noble Canyon, CA

An internet search, almost two years ago, of Mountain Biking near San Diego identified Noble Canyon as the best trail in the area. Since then it had ranked high on my to do list. Unfortunately for almost two years I was unable to find anyone to join me, and I was unwilling to attempt it alone.

I spent some time this summer properly introducing Jeff to mountain biking and by August he was ready to attempt Noble Canyon with me, or so we thought. Noble Canyon is a fun tough trail, and neither of us would have a clean run of the 10+ miles down. I manage a nice flip that left a knot on my elbow seen in the below video.



We each found ourselves catapulted off our bikes more than once, and my chain broke twice. The first time it broke I was able to recover both halves of the master link, but the second time I wasn't so lucky. This resulted in me riding and walking almost 5 miles with no chain.

Noble Canyon truly deserves it's title as the best trail. It offers a little bit of everything. For me the best parts are the flowy parts through the trees along the creek. They are fast smooth and have just enough switchbacks to keep you on your toes. The rock gardens are tough without a full suspension DH bike, but most of them can be rode if you take your time.



I managed to make it back to Noble Canyon. This time we had a bigger group and due to a late start were racing the sunset. The trail is much more fun when you have a chain the whole way. The mile or so of slight uphill moves a whole lot faster.

-James

Lele Kawa

Big Bear, Mountain Biking

Finally made it up to Big Bear Lake, CA with my mountain bike. I didn't have much of a plan, other than ride some single track. Based on my camping trip back in November, I knew I wanted to ride "Plantation", but I had no idea where the other good trails were.

I did some riding in town but the trails I found were marked no bikes. After my warm up ride around town trying to find a trail, I headed to the Big Bear Discovery Center. I bought "Follette's Local Trail Map 3.0" map to learn where to find some new trails. 

When nothing jumped out at me, I decided why not start with Plantation. At the top of Plantation, I saw the end of "Skyline Trail", still under construction. I was feeling the altitude on the uphill, but it was a fun ride down.

After Plantation, I looked at the map again and spotted two trails starting at Aspen Glen Picnic Area on Mill Creek Road. I ended up riding up and down Red Ant Canyon. It was a bit steeper and more technical that Plantation and a good last ride for the weekend.

-James

Lele Kawa

Lele Kawa the movie

The Lele Kawa crew has been working on a feature length movie that documents some of our adventures in an artistic fashion. The plan is to finish the movie before the end of the year and then to sell it, with any profits it generates going to "Path International" a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate veterans through therapeutic horseback riding.

So far we have this trailer put together. I will add an update when we get our kickstarter up and running.

-James

Lele Kawa

Morning Mountain Biking at Sugarloaf, Yuma, AZ

I took a pre work ride with one of the guys I work with. This was my first time going out that early, and also my first time going out riding with somebody else.

The guy I went with rides about 20 miles a day, but is not used to single track riding. I blew him away on the trail. I had to stop and wait for him every time the trail split. I was hoping I could get him in some good follow or lead shots with my helmet cam, but he couldn't keep up.

-James

Lele Kawa

Jan mountain bike near Yuma

Heading out for the first time this year back to Laguna Mountains for some biking. I headed south for the first time. Based on the map I expected to find a lot more trails closer together on the south side. I didn't find as many as I expected. I think I found enough single track I could link all together without using the jeep trails much. Maybe next time.

Biking near Yuma Dec 4th

Went out biking again. For the first time there were other people over there. As I pulled up there was a guy finishing up his day of riding. I guess I'm still the only idiot that rides in Yuma at one in the afternoon.

Since it was a nice cool day I rode a lot further than my last few rides. I did over 30 miles. I took the trail I road down last week up all the way to the top of the range, and just kept following the trails north. Then I headed down on a trail back to the canal. The canal road was the worst part of the ride, I should have just road the single track I rode up back the where I started. The canal road wasn't strait and just very boring and I was already getting tired. I should have stayed on the far side of the canal. It would have been a strait shot back to the parking area. Maybe next time.

The map below show most of the route. The app was having glitches in the beginning of the ride so the track doesn't show up right, from the parking lot to the first photo. I think some of the pictures from this ride are pretty good. No video this time.

Yuma area Mountain Biking over thanksgiving

Back out to sugerloaf for some biking over the Thanksgiving weekend. Even for late November it was pretty warm in the afternoon. This time I worked my way up the way I came down last time, When I got to a crossroads I tried going a new more north. This didn't prove to be the best decision. It was a lot of steep and loose up hills, and the trails didn't link very well. After some pretty steep hiking my bike up I spotted a promising trail. The video of the top part of it is below. I hunk new time I will try and make my way up that trail and head north more, because I feel like there is still a lot in that direction.

MTB at sugarloaf near Yuma, AZ

When I found out I was coming to Yuma a few months ago, I started looking for things to do right away. On the web site MTBR I found Sugarloaf peak.

As always there was a delay between my arrival and when my stuff arrived. So I headed over there a few weeks ago to explore the area by 4WD truck. It looked pretty promising, lots of elevation change and some established single track as well as "Jeep trails."

My stuff arrived this last week, and one of the first things I did was put my bike together. It just so happened to be an unseasonalby cool week for the desert, staying under 90 most of the week. I took the bike out on a bike trail along the Colorado River for a shake down. I'm glad I did, because I had a slow leak in my front tire.

The weekend arrived and my planned early morning start turned into an after lunch start, but I made it out there. Maybe it was because it was mid afternoon in the desert, but I was the only one out there. I headed north along the canal until the first wash. There I turned up hill along the Jeep trail. About a mile and a half, heading up hill, on loose rock and I intersected one of the single track trails. I followed this up a little further, but when it seemed to start going down, away from the parking area, I turned around. The video below is from that turn around back the my car. Just over a mile of down hill single track.



I think this was a pretty good first trip out. Next time I will go earlier, and press on further. Being alone and since it was my first time I think 3 miles was about right.

Here is the downhill video from my second trip and the map below.

Luxembourg Mountain Biking "The End"

It was almost two years ago now. Near the end of my time in Luxembourg, I was tipped off to some better Mountain bike trails, by a video on youtube. The youtuber was kind enough to give me directions on how to get to this not so hidden national mountain bike park, down in the iron rich, red hills of south east Luxembourg. Unfortunately the wet winter wasn't quite over with when I first started going. This bike park had a few miles of single and double track and some serious dirt jump and ladder dropps. I didn't take advantage of any of the DJ, but I did spend a few days riding around the single and double track. I don't think I ever saw another rider, outside of the DJ area.

DJ still wet in April

Nice and dry in May

Some of the locals put on a show for me.

Coordinates are +49° 29' 21.69", +6° 0' 26.94"

Mountain Bike San Salvador

First post of the new year. I finally got my bike out on the trails. It only took being in San Salvador for six months. To be fair to myself, my gear took four and a half months of that six to arrive. I found out about a ecopark, Ecoparque El Espino, that is on the edge of the city. I found this park on google after seeing it talked about in a local Bike association's video. I have tried to get somebody to head over there with me to check it out. After two months I was still not able to convince one of the guys to go with me. Once I got somebody to try and find it with me, but we had limited time and my information was a little off. Sunday finally I talked a local to try to find it with me. She had never been there either. We were successful. The place seemed safer than I expected, despite its location. We took a short walk and the park seemed pretty nice. Monday, as soon as I got off work I decided to take my bike over there. As could be expected, I couldn't get anyone to head over there with me. Since I had already done the recon, I felt I would be ok with doing it alone. I got dropped off at the top of the hill and just went for it. The trails seemed a little sketchy but I managed to only fall once(5:16 on the video). This one run got my adrenalin going. Also I got some good GPS reading on one of the trails and the shaky video below. Too bad I found these trials right before heading out of the country for two weeks. When I get back I will step it up with the mountain biking and hopefully climbing also.

Coordinates are +13.700946,-89.277391

Luxembourg Mountain bike take 2

Well I've been heading over to the Bambech trails a few times a week the last few week. Despite the rain we have been having. Unfortunately I haven't been able to convince anyone else to join me, but it has been all good. Found some trails that are narrow and steep, which is what I have been looking for. The mud from all the rain has also made it fun. Also, I just got a V.I.O. POV camera, which is why I waited until after a few trips to post this.

Going to these trails have given me a good chance to play with all my new toys. Been taking my new Garmin GPS to track my speed, distance, and altitude. And took the new camera out to get the videos below.

These trails are a blast, there is plenty of variety. Long leg burning uphills and some nice down hills. I've tried to kept my speed sub 30mph so far because I don't trust these $100 Mongoose bikes. I have only been riding a small corner so far, trying to learn it inside out and find any secrets it may be hiding. Also since I have been riding alone I don't want to wander off to far and run into trouble.

Enjoy the videos, more to come.

First Luxembourg Venture

This is my first experimental post so don't expect to much.

I was browsing the internet the other day and stumbled upon a youtube of a POV mountain bike video from Luxembourg. After a bit more research into the matter, I learned that the video was taken at some trails right outside the city. Which just so happened to be about a 10 minute ride away from my house.
The next morning a grabbed my roommate and headed out. As a bonus the ride there included a long steep street which we were able to hit speeds in the upper 30 mph rolling down. A short ride up the hill towards Bridel and we arrived at the Bambesch trails. We entered the trails and with no destination just started riding, picking turn offs as they came. There was a huge variety of trails, and we were lost in no time. After about two hours, when we finally hit the road we decided to call it quits for the day and follow the road back, knowing that we had to ride back up that hill that brought us down.
Not bad for the second time on a bike in a few years.

My roommate heading down one of the main trails

A little narrower trail surrounded by what looks like poison ivy

Map we used to get un-lost and head home